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Review Just say I dont to Bride Wars
Southern Ledger - January 9, 2009
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Meltdown 101 The importance of same-store sales
Southern Ledger - January 9, 2009
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Broadcasts to mobile devices to start in 22 cities
Southern Ledger - January 9, 2009
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New TV trends Internet movies, 3-D, power saving
Southern Ledger - January 9, 2009
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UN halts Gaza aid, truce resolution deal approved
Southern Ledger - January 9, 2009
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UN Security Council calls for Gaza cease-fire
Southern Ledger - January 9, 2009
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UN Security Council calls for immediate Gaza truce
Southern Ledger - January 9, 2009
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UN calls for immediate cease-fire in Gaza
Southern Ledger - January 9, 2009
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Pope Benedict jokes about hoarse voice
Southern Ledger - January 9, 2009
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THE TENNCAR DEBACLE
November 20, 2004 -
December 26, 2004
No, the headline is not a typo. Just imagine if Tennessee had instituted a plan to provide car insurance to the poor, uninsured and uninsurable instead of health care insurance. And imagine that car insurance plan, let's call it TennCar, had been based on the same flawed premises and implemented in the same way as TennCare. And finally, imagine we allowed it to become the bloated, bureaucratic, fraud-ridden nightmare that we have today with TennCare. When you look at TennCare through an analogy to car insurance it is quite easy to understand how it became such a catastrophe.
First, if we had implemented TennCar like TennCare we would have immediately seen an influx of people from other states like Georgia and Mississippi taking advantage of the free or low-cost car insurance provided by Tennessee. Tennesseans who had car insurance provided by their employers would have quickly figured out that they could simply lie to qualify for the free or lower cost car insurance offered by TennCar. Not surprisingly, TennCar enrollment would have exploded beyond initial expectations, along with the cost to taxpayers.
Car insurance providers would also have figured out how to profit from TennCar by shifting their most risky insureds off their rolls and onto TennCar. People with lots of speeding tickets, several DUIs, or a history of risky behavior would have been declared "uninsurable", and placed on TennCar. In fact, for a fee of $25 they would even have provided a letter defining you as "uninsurable" to help you get on TennCar. Despite insuring a less risky pool of drivers these insurance providers would not lower their car insurance premiums and would make greater profits than ever.
Other providers would have jumped into the game as well. Car repair shops would provide unnecessary repairs, paid for by taxpayers through TennCar. In some instances they would submit receipts for reimbursement without ever actually providing repairs. Rampant fraud would increase, particularly as the TennCar bureau did nothing to prosecute or investigate such abuses.
To make matters worse, so-called "advocates" for those on TennCar would file lawsuits to insure that repairs would include things beyond the normal coverage available for those paying for their own car insurance. Things like oil changes, new tires and wiper blades would be included in basic coverage. And despite TennCar enrollees averaging 15 to 20 oil changes a year, compared to a national average less than a third of that figure, nothing would be done to deal with the rampant fraud involved. (TennCare recipients, for example, now average about 33 prescriptions per person per year, compared to an expected average about a third of that figure. Yet, nothing has been done to address the problem, or the costs associated with that fraud.)
The repair shops would also have made it easy for new enrollees to take full advantage of TennCar. So easy, in fact, that you would not even have to sign up for TennCar and pay the modest premiums before getting your car repaired. Instead, the repair shops would let enroll in TennCar at the shops themselves -- after you had a wreck. It would be as silly as letting people pay the fire department for fire insurance when they show up at your house to put out a fire. But that is exactly how TennCare has worked.
Thanks to the "advocates," TennCar enrollees would also be entitled to name-brand vehicles for rental cars while their cars were repaired; as opposed to the generic rentals that most people would be provided. Thus, while most Tennessee taxpayers would drive Fords or Toyotas while getting their cars repaired, TennCar enrollees could drive a Jaguar, BMW or Mercedes. The cost would be astronomical, but it would just be "free" taxpayer money.
Ultimately, TennCar would have been a disaster -- just like TennCare. Costs of TennCare have been uncontrolled; fraud and abuse have been rampant; greed from the enrollees, the providers and the "advocates" guaranteed that basic common-sense reforms that might have saved the program couldn?t be implemented. It is past time to pull the plug on TennCare. Every day the inevitable is delayed Tennessee taxpayers lose millions of dollars. Those who really understand TennCare already know that, and have known it for a long time. So what are they waiting for?
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THE TENNESSEE INCOME TAX IS DEAD, RIGHT? -
November 8, 2004 -
November 15, 2004
A Tennessee income tax was not on the ballot this election year, but the issue was clearly not far from voters’ minds. Despite election year pronouncements that the issue is “dead” the contentious debate over a state income tax is still far from over. In fact, when the Tennessee Tax Study Commission issues an expected recommendation for an income tax in December, the issue will re-emerge just in time for a new legislative session. With Governor Phil Bredesen’s much touted TennCare reforms hittin... |
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WINNERS AND LOSERS FROM ELECTION DAY. -
November 1, 2004 -
November 7, 2004
The bitterly contested election of 2004 is finally over, but the fallout from the election will continue for a long time to come. There were plenty of winners, and losers, on election day…and many of them were not even on the ballot!
LOSERS
Governor Phil Bredesen. Governor Bredesen launched a vicious assault on several Republican candidates who ended up victorious, most notably Sen.-elect Diane Black, Sen.-elect Jim Tracy, Rep.-elect Curtis Johnson, and Rep. Judd Matheny, among... |
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DRAFT DECEPTION BY THE DEMOCRATS -
October 5, 2004 -
October 12, 2004
During the past several months the Democrat party underground has been spreading a bogus rumor claiming the Bush Administration is planning to revive a mandatory military draft immediately after the November election. CBS, in keeping with its peculiar standards of fair journalism (which seems founded upon “what ridiculous story can we air this week to help the Kerry campaign”), aired an item last week which was intended to give the rumor credence. As planned, the Kerry campaign pointed to the “n... |
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IS TENNESSEE "BUSINESS FRIENDLY?" -
August 16, 2004 -
August 22, 2004
Competition among states for business growth and relocation has never been more intense. Much of the attention on economic development at the state and local level focuses on companies that relocate - and the jobs they bring with them. But the real engine of economic growth is the expansion of existing companies, big and small, that already do business here.
A large company choosing to move from California to Tennessee may get the headlines, but the hundreds of small businesses across... |
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16 WORDS -
August 9, 2004 -
August 15, 2004
They were just sixteen words. They were spoken by the President in the 2003 State of the Union Address. "The British government," he said, "has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."
In making his case for pre-emptive war against Iraq, the statement by President Bush was only a small portion of the rationale underlying the decision. The information indicated that Saddam Hussein was proceeding with efforts to develop nuclear weapons... |
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